The Godfather of Football

Chapter 612 Midfielder's Responsibility

"Beep!!!!"

When Shakhtar Donetsk was preparing to launch a quick counterattack, the team's midfield core, Brazilian player William, suddenly kicked the ball out of bounds. The referee Massimo Busacca blew the whistle and ran quickly towards the goal of Shakhtar Donetsk.

On the right side of the top of the penalty area of ​​Shakhtar Donetsk, Tottenham Hotspur's starting striker, who performed very well in this game and scored a goal, was seen lying on the ground, and the surrounding Tottenham Hotspur players rushed up quickly, but did not have any conflict with the players of Shakhtar Donetsk.

Soon, Massimo Busacca walked over to understand the situation, and Shakhtar Donetsk's main defender Rakitsky explained to the head coach that he and Raul just bumped into each other during a header, and he did not have any extra movements.

At this time, the score on the field was 1:2. According to international practice, the home team is in front and the visiting team is behind. Tottenham Hotspur temporarily took the lead with the goals of Raul and Eriksen.

"Hurry up and take a look!" After seeing the gesture of the referee Massimo Busacca, Ye Qiu immediately asked the team doctor to rush up to understand the situation, but at the same time he turned his head and glanced at the bench, "Let Coutinho warm up quickly!"

The last sentence was obviously to explain to Luo Pangzi. This was a precautionary measure. After all, he didn't know what Raul's current situation was. The only thing that was certain was that he had a bad premonition.

Sure enough, soon, the team doctor made a gesture to the sidelines, indicating that Raul should be carried out of the field, and the referee allowed it.

With Raul's appearance, the game soon resumed, and Tottenham Hotspur was temporarily in a state of one less player.

"How is it?" Ye Qiu walked to the sidelines and asked with concern.

Raul, who was already sitting on the grass, shook his head and smiled bitterly at Ye Qiu who was walking over, "I twisted my leg when I landed, I'm injured!"

This made Ye Qiu feel a little relieved, and then he looked at the team doctor who was checking the injury. The latter nodded at Ye Qiu: "It's not a big problem, but you need to rest, hurry up and get on the bench!"

Ye Qiu nodded and patted Raul on the shoulder, "It's okay, have a good rest!" After saying that, Ye Qiu turned around and walked back to the coach's command area, but at this time, the entire Donbass Arena suddenly rang with thunderous cheers, and saw Eduardo da Silva, who had just transferred from Arsenal this season, rushed out of Tottenham Hotspur's penalty area, waving his arms constantly to celebrate his goal.

On the big red scoreboard, the number representing the number of goals scored by the home team also quickly changed from 1 to 2. Shakhtar Donetsk equalized the score, which made many Tottenham Hotspur players feel angry, but they were helpless.

"What should we do now?" Roland Shepas was a little depressed, a little unwilling, and even a little angry. It was too unkind. He injured the other player, carried him to the sidelines to rest, and took the opportunity to sneak in a goal. It was too shameless!

"Mauro, what do you think?" Ye Qiu looked at Mauro Tassotti, who didn't seem to be very nervous or anxious.

For Tottenham Hotspur, winning or not in this game is really not a big problem, because there is another home game next. As long as Tottenham Hotspur wins this home game, it will advance steadily as the first in the group, so winning this game is really not important.

Mauro Tassotti could see that Ye Qiu was testing him on purpose. He smiled and said, "Of course, although Shakhtar Donetsk is in high spirits now, we have to completely defeat them when their morale is at its highest. Only in this way can we convince them, right?"

"Well said!" Ye Qiu praised, "Let Coutinho come quickly!"

Soon, the Brazilian midfielder came to Ye Qiu's side and was almost pulled over by Ye Qiu. "After you go up, don't play in the midfield, play on the left, let Neymar go up to play as a striker, I want to score again and kill Shakhtar Donetsk, understand?"

"Understood, boss!" Coutinho nodded heavily in agreement.

"Go!" Ye Qiu patted Coutinho on the shoulder and asked him to go to the fourth official to go through the procedures for playing.

While Shakhtar Donetsk equalized the score, Coutinho also completed the handover, and the game soon resumed.

Shakhtar Donetsk has become the top team in the Ukrainian Super League since the new century. This has a lot to do with the fact that the team has many high-level foreign players from countries such as Brazil, but in the final analysis, it is because of Shakhtar Donetsk's Romanian head coach, Mircea Lucescu.

Frankly speaking, if you want to find news about this head coach in the newspaper, you will find that it is very scarce, very little, but in Ye Qiu's opinion, Lucescu is a famous coach who has been ignored by the media. The performance of Shakhtar Donetsk, which he led in the European arena in the past few years, is enough to prove this.

Lucescu was a professional player. After retiring, he coached in Romania. After winning the league championship, he landed in Serie A, but his performance was very bad, and almost all of his coaching ended in short-term coaching. He has coached Brescia twice, and has also coached in Pisa, Reggina and Inter Milan. He is most famous for promoting Pirlo.

As early as the Brescia period, Pirlo was valued by Lucescu, and then Lucescu went to Inter Milan and brought Pirlo to Inter Milan. However, Lucescu did not stay in Inter Milan for too long, which led to Pirlo missing Inter Milan. Later, Lucescu coached Galatasaray and Besiktas in Turkey, and achieved quite good coaching results.

In 2004, he began to coach Shakhtar Donetsk, and then in the 04/05 season, 05/06 season, 07/08 season and 09/10 season, in just six years, he won four Ukrainian Super League championship trophies, and in the 08/09 season, Shakhtar Donetsk also won the Europa League championship, which is a remarkable achievement.

In 2009, there was a news that the Romanian Football Association wanted to hire Mircea Lucescu as the head coach of the national team, but Lucescu refused the invitation. As a result, the Football Association invited his son to be the head coach of the national team to replace his father. This was also a big joke at the time.

Perhaps because of his nearly ten years of experience in Serie A, Lucescu's coaching style pays great attention to the rigor of the tactical system and defense, which is also regarded as an important reason why Shakhtar Donetsk has achieved outstanding results in the past few seasons.

And this team is also very rich, and there are many well-known stars in the team, such as the right-back captain Srna, who is not only an old monster in FM Football Manager, but also well-known in European football. Manchester United once wanted to introduce him to fill the gap on the right, but Srna's salary at Shakhtar Donetsk was too high and he was unwilling to cut his salary. In addition, the tax here is low, so he rejected Manchester United's transfer invitation.

In addition, there is Douglas Costa, a famous Brazilian little monster, and Brazilian midfielder William, as well as Croatian striker Eduardo da Silva, who played for Arsenal before switching to Shakhtar Donetsk after breaking his leg.

From this list of players, it can be easily seen that Shakhtar Donetsk is not a team without strength, especially at their home stadium, Donbass Arena. The team's home record in the Champions League is very good, which makes the team very confident and tenacious in playing at home.

The temperature in Donetsk in November this year is not low, even similar to London, England. Even at night, the temperature outside is about 4 or 5 degrees, and the temperature inside the stadium will be slightly higher, so the weather cannot be an obstacle for Tottenham Hotspur.

In addition, the Donbass Arena of Shakhtar Donetsk also uses mixed turf. This mixed turf is to implant the fiber network into the soil two centimeters, and then plant the turf on it. When the grass grows up, the roots are mixed with the fibers, and about 3% of polyethylene leaves are mixed and implanted on the cotton grass, so this type of turf is softer, tougher and more permeable.

According to the characteristics of the players' kicking, the ball has less friction on this type of mixed turf, faster speed, and better bottoming. It has been promoted throughout the Premier League, and even Wembley Stadium has been replaced with mixed turf not long ago.

So, the weather and venue that are the most troublesome for Ukraine in this game are not a problem.

If they really lose the game, Ye Qiu and Tottenham Hotspur have no excuses, they can only say that they are not as good as others.

…………

…………

Many people say that Tottenham Hotspur seems to advocate individual performance and has a lot of tactical freedom.

Ramsey has always found this funny, because when Ye Qiu came to the team, he had already come from Cardiff to North London. From the Chigwell training base to the current Theobald training base, he witnessed the growth and progress of Tottenham Hotspur along the way.

Contrary to what everyone thinks, Ye Qiu has always emphasized responsibility.

I still remember that when Ye Qiu came to Tottenham Hotspur from Cardiff, he once said this when he talked about tactical ideas in the team, "No one can play as they please in my tactics!"

This may sound very domineering and give people a very domineering and strong desire for control, which is completely a dictatorship, but it is this kind of thinking that has created the current Tottenham Hotspur.

Yes, no one can play as they please, and everyone must place a premise before expressing themselves, that is, how to better help the team.

"When you play behind the striker, your most important responsibility is of course to provide assistance to the striker in front of you, but you must also help the team win the game, so you must control the distance between the midfield and the forward line, otherwise they will lose contact."

"But as a player behind the striker, you are also in front of the defender. You provide assistance to the striker and must also provide protection for the defender, so you must press the opponent when the team does not have the ball. You must learn how to protect the defense behind you. This is the responsibility of a midfielder!"

This is what Ye Qiu said to Ramsey at the beginning. He has always emphasized that the team is an integral whole from front to back, an indivisible whole. Once it is divided, it will be at the mercy of others, so this requires mutual help. The players in front provide protection for the players behind, and the players behind provide support for the players in front.

Unconsciously, Ramsey is about to turn 20 years old. It has been four years since he came to Tottenham Hotspur. In the past four years, he has been cultivated by the Tottenham Hotspur coaching staff and has long been familiar with the entire offensive and defensive system of Tottenham Hotspur. He is working hard to learn how to help the players in front to attack and protect his teammates behind him.

This is his responsibility!

Every time he plays, he runs a large range and he has always been very hard, but his performance is always ups and downs. Sometimes when he thinks he can perform very well, his performance is a mess, but sometimes when he doesn't realize that he can perform well, he surprises himself.

He felt very depressed about this. He once asked Messi and Ribery why they could maintain a very good state for a long time. The two teammates did not hide it from him and told him a lot of experiences and lessons, but he still didn't improve much.

Until recently, during a training session, Ramsey heard the team's consultant Bobby Harms, a youth training expert who had trained superstars such as Cruyff and Van Basten, telling Ramsey not to think too much, not to always think about how to show himself, to do his job well, and to slowly learn how to help the team better. That's enough.

Ramsey began to do what Bobby Harms said, and his performance began to improve. In the two League Cup games against Arsenal and Newcastle, although the opponents did not send out all their main players, Ramsey's performance was quite good.

In this fourth round of the Champions League group, although many people thought that it didn't matter if Tottenham Hotspur couldn't win, Ramsey knew that all Tottenham Hotspur players and fans hoped to win.

How to win?

Ramsey didn't have many ideas in his mind, because he was never a player who could dominate the situation on the field, and he was not a controlling player who could become the core of the team, so he could only do what he was best at, not thinking about everything else, and trying to use his strength to fulfill his responsibilities.

When Neymar got the ball in the frontcourt and was forced a little embarrassed by the opponent's defender, Ramsey appeared in front of him. The Brazilian immediately knocked it back to Ramsey, and the midfielder of Shakhtar Donetsk quickly surrounded Ramsey. The Welshman quickly knocked it back to the back line and handed it to Alba.

The Spaniard knocked it back to Cech, the Czech got the ball, Eduardo da Silva wanted to interfere with the goalkeeper, Cech passed it to Alba again, and Alba passed it to Ramsey who had run back to his own half to receive the ball.

Tottenham Hotspur has become accustomed to Ramsey's large-scale running back and forth. The Welshman's running ability is well-known in Tottenham Hotspur, and he is also very hardworking.

Ramsey took the ball with his back to the attacking direction, was pressed, and knocked it back again, passing it directly to Cech.

The Czech player did not wait for the ball to stop at his feet, because Eduardo da Silva was spying on the side, so he passed the ball directly to Thiago Silva. The Tottenham Hotspur captain obviously felt that some changes should be made at this time, so he simply dribbled forward himself.

As Thiago Silva dribbled forward, Tottenham Hotspur had an extra player in the midfield. Shakhtar Donetsk's defense was a bit messy, and they didn't know how to defend, while Tottenham Hotspur felt that the pressure was relieved a lot.

Soon, Alba also came up, and Tottenham Hotspur began to have their own stable control of the ball in the front area of ​​the opponent's 30-meter area. After several passes back and forth, Ramsey also participated in one of them, but there was no substantial effect. It was more of a transition, but it ensured the stability of Tottenham Hotspur's control of the ball in the front area of ​​30 meters.

Gradually, Ramsey had a feeling that the team's left side was very active. Coutinho and Neymar began to consciously lean towards this side. Sometimes the distance between Shakhtar Donetsk's right back Srna and central defender Rakitsky would be pulled very far. Neymar also saw this and began to consciously cruise on this side.

Will this be an opportunity?

Ramsey thought it was possible, but he felt that even if it was not an opportunity, it should at least be able to disrupt the opponent's penalty area.

So Ramsey also consciously went to this side.

Alba passed the ball to Coutinho on the left. The Brazilian took the ball on the left, dribbled very skillfully, and had a very good sense of the ball, which made Ramsey very envious. He quickly used his footwork to find a gap from Srna and passed it directly to Neymar on the ribs.

Sure enough, at this moment, Ramsey saw very clearly that Coutinho and Neymar were going to hit the opponent's ribs, and at this time he could no longer participate in it, but he could receive his teammates, that is, when Neymar had no chance, he would choose to pass the ball.

Neymar received Coutinho's through ball, faced Rakitsky in the penalty area, and made a fake move to go to the bottom, but failed to shake Rakitsky. This young Ukrainian central defender is also very capable. He is called the best central defender in Ukraine after Ziglinsky. He is not tall, but very flexible.

Seeing that he couldn't get rid of Rakitsky, Neymar made an emergency stop and switched the ball from his left foot to his right foot. His right foot rushed to a position a little bit inside the penalty area before the defensive players double-teamed him.

Ramsey, who was originally going to run to receive Neymar's pass, appeared in this loophole at the right time. There were no defensive players around him. Facing Neymar's gentle and steady push, he almost didn't hesitate at all, and swung his right foot directly to shoot.

At this moment, he remembered what Bobby Hams said, do your job well and slowly learn how to help the team better!

It turns out that when you do this, goals and outstanding performances will follow!

Tap the screen to use advanced tools Tip: You can use left and right keyboard keys to browse between chapters.

You'll Also Like